Safety-critical avionics processing systems make increasing use of multi-core processors with embedded hypervisors. The use of a multi-core processing environment allows for the simultaneous hosting of multiple guest operating systems (GOS) across multiple cores. However, the number and size of GOS images required by simultaneous hosting may complicate the startup timing requirements of certified avionics processing systems. For example, with respect to a cold start (wherein avionics equipment is booted or powered up after a period of nonuse) instruments powered by a safety-critical system must be operational within 10 to 20 seconds. However, under warm-start conditions involving, e.g., a reboot or restart inflight, safety-critical sensors or display systems must resume normal operations immediately (e.g., within a second or a fraction thereof). It may be desirable to optimize the startup timing of a multi-core, multiple-GOS processing environment by simplifying the initial loading and execution of runtime images.